Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:04:28.173Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biomimetic materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Julian F.V. Vincent
Julian F.V. Vincent*
Affiliation:
Centre for Biomimetic and Natural Technologies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

I’ve long been suspicious about attempts to see energy as the overwhelmingly central item setting both options and criteria for design in nature. Indeed, when I tried to create a conceptual framework for teaching biology to college students, I ended up putting energy distinctly second to information. Where energy rules, one can find some analog of voltage potential. But in nature, who eats whom boils down to the design and operation of one’s particular teeth and other equipment. I once set up an electrical analog of an ecosystem, but it gave an unreasonable picture until I added ad hoc diodes to keep the trees from eating the caterpillars at night and other such misbehavior. (Steve Vogel, Duke University, 2007)

In materials processing, Nature replaces the massive use of energy (for example high temperatures or harsh chemical reactions) with the use of information (which equates with structure at all levels, molecule to ecosystem). Indeed, most of the exceptional functionality of biological materials is due to their complex structure, driven by their chemical composition and morphology derived from DNA. It is here that the most important aspect of biomimetics emerges, and it has the power to redesign engineering.

Keywords

Biomimetic (assembly)FractureNanostructure
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 23 , Issue 12: Biomimetic and Bio-enabled Materials Science and Engineering , December 2008 , pp. 3140 - 3147
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Arzt, E., Gorb, S., Spolenak, R.: From micro to nano contacts in biological attachment devices. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100, 10603 2003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2Barthlott, W., Neinhuis, C.: Purity of the sacred lotus, or escape from contamination in biological surfaces. Planta 202, 1 1997CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Velcro, S.A.: Improvements in or relating to a method and a device for producing a velvet type fabric. Swiss Patent No. 721338 (1955),Google Scholar
4Shu, L.H., Chiu, I.: Natural language analysis for biomimetic design, presented at ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference, DETC2004 (2004),Google Scholar
5Urry, D.W.: Elastic biomolecular machines. Sci. Am. 272, 44 1995CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Altshuller, G.: The Innovation Algorithm, TRIZ, Systematic Innovation and Technical Creativity Technical Innovation Center Inc Worcester, MA 1999Google Scholar
7Vincent, J.F.V., Bogatyreva, O., Pahl, A-K., Bogatyrev, N., Bowyer, A.: Putting biology into TRIZ: A database of biological effects. Creativ. Innovat. Manage. 14, 66 2005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8Vincent, J.F.V.: Deconstructing the design of a biological material. J. Theor. Biol. 236, 73 2005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9Vincent, J.F.V., Bogatyreva, O.A., Bogatyrev, N.R., Bowyer, A., Pahl, A-K.: Biomimetics—Its practice and theory. J. R. Soc. Interface 3, 471 2006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Hillerton, J.E., Vincent, J.F.V.: The specific location of zinc in insect mandibles. J. Exp. Biol. 101, 333 1982CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Lichtenegger, H.C., Schöberl, T., Ruokolainen, J.T., Cross, J.O., Heald, S.M., Birkedal, H., Waite, J.H., Stucky, G.D.: Zinc and mechanical prowess in the jaws of Nereis, a marine worm. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100, 9144 2003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12Jones, E.I., McCance, R.A., Shackleton, L.R.B.: The role of iron and silica in the structure of radular teeth of certain marine molluscs. J. Exp. Biol. 12, 65 1935CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Motta, P.J.: A quantitative analysis of ferric iron in butterfly fish teeth (Chaetodontidae, Perciformes) and the relationship to feeding ecology. Can. J. Zool. 65, 106 1987CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Gosline, J.M., Guerette, P.A., Ortlepp, C.S., Savage, K.N.: The mechanical design of spider silks: From fibroin sequence to mechanical function. J. Exp. Biol. 202, 3295 1999CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15Wegst, U.G.K.: The mechanical performance of natural materials. Ph.D. Thesis, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK (1996)Google Scholar
16Stetter, K.O.: Extremophiles and their adaptation to hot environments. FEBS Lett. 452, 22 1999CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17Sicot, F-X., Mesnage, M., Masselot, M., Exposito, J-Y., Garrone, R., Deutsch, J., Gaill, F.: Molecular adaptation to an extreme environment: origin of the thermal stability of the pompeii worm collagen. J. Mol. Biol. 302, 811 2000CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Bell, E.C., Gosline, J.M.: Mechanical design of mussel byssus: Material yield enhances attachment strength. J. Exp. Biol. 199, 1005 1996CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19Jackson, A.P., Vincent, J.F.V., Turner, R.M.: The mechanical design of nacre. Proc. R. Soc. London, B Ser. 234, 415 1988Google Scholar
20Mayer, G.: New classes of tough composite materials—Lessons from natural rigid biological systems. Mater. Sci. Eng., C 26, 1261 2006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21Currey, J.D.: The design of mineralised hard tissues for their mechanical functions. J. Exp. Biol. 202, 3285 1999CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22Bogatyreva, O., Shillerov, A., Bogatyrev, N.: Patterns in TRIZ contradiction matrix: Integrated and distributed systems in 4th ETRIA Symposium, edited by G. Cascini Firenze University Press Florence, Italy 2004 305Google Scholar
23Vincent, J.F.V., Bogatyreva, O., Bogatyrev, N., Pahl, A.-K., Bowyer, A.: A theoretical basis for biomimetics in Mechanical Behavior of Biological and Biomimetic Systems, edited by A.J. Bushby, V.L. Ferguson, C-C. Ko, and M.L. Oyen (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 898E, Warrendale, PA, 2005 ), L14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24Vincent, J.F.V., Wegst, U.G.K.: Design and mechanical properties of insect cuticle. Arthropod Struct. Dev. 33, 187 2004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25Ashby, M.F., Brechet, Y.J.M.: Designing hybrid materials. Acta Mater. 51, 5801 2003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26Neville, A.C.: Biology of Fibrous Composites: Development beyond the Cell Membrane The University Press Cambridge 1993CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27Green, P.B., Steele, C.S., Rennich, S.C.: Phyllotactic patterns: A biophysical mechanism for their origin. Ann. Bot. (London) 77, 515 1996CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28Lakes, R.S.: Materials with structural hierarchy. Nature 361, 511 1993CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29Lomov, S.V., Huysmans, G.: Hierarchy of textile structures and architecture of fabric geometric models. Text. Res. J. 71, 534 2001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30Padawer, G.E., Beecher, N.: On the strength and stiffness of planar reinforced plastic resins. Polym. Eng. Sci. 10, 185 1970CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31Jeronimidis, G.: Wood, one of nature’s challenging composites in The Mechanical Properties of Biological Materials, edited by J.F.V. Vincent and J.D. Currey (The University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1980) p. 169Google Scholar
32Katz, J.L.: The structure and biomechanics of bone in The Mechanical Properties of Biological Materials, edited by J.F.V. Vincent and J.D. Currey (The University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1980) p. 137Google Scholar
33Tai, K.S., Dao, M., Suresh, S., Palazoglu, A., Ortiz, C.: Nanoscale heterogeneity promotes energy dissipation in bone. Nat. Mater. 6, 454 2007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
34Hepworth, D.G., Vincent, J.F.V., Stringer, G., Jeronimidis, G.: Variations in the morphology of wood structure can explain why hardwood species of similar density have very different resistances to impact and compressive loading. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 360, 255 2002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
35Kull, U., Herbig, A., Otto, F.: Construction and economy of plant stems as revealed by use of the bic-method. Ann. Bot. (London) 69, 327 1992CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36Pugnoy, N.M., Ruoff, R.S.: Quantized fracture mechanics. Philos. Mag. 84, 2829 2004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37Gao, H., Ji, B., Jaeger, I.L., Arzt, E., Fratzl, P.: Materials become insensitive to flaws at nanoscale: Lessons from nature. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 5597 2003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38Zioupos, P., Currey, J.D., Sedman, A.J.: An examination of the micromechanics of failure of bone and antler by acoustic emission tests and laser scanning confocal microscopy. Med. Eng. Phys. 16, 203 1994CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed